Motherhood
Eve is forgiven for her past mistakes and initiated into the Way of Love. In return, Eli gives Xena the power to kill Gods, as the Olympians launch their final attack on Xena, Gabrielle and Eve. But the Gods have a back up plan envolving Gabrielle and the Furies. Summary Distraught with grief, Eve runs recklessly through the desert closely followed by Xena and Gabrielle. Although Gabrielle doesn't think she will ever be able to forgive Eve for killing Joxer, she agrees to help Xena reform her daughter. Meanwhile, when Ares tells the gods that Livia is really Eve, they decide to call upon the Furies for help. Ares considers it a bad idea, as he already tried it against Xena. However, Athena's plan is more subtle. After Xena saves Eve from a group of angry Romans determined to exact revenge for the loss of their loved ones, the Furies begin to undermine Gabrielle's thoughts in an effort to turn her against Eve. One of Eli's followers suggests they take Eve to Eli's disciple, the Baptist, who initiates sinners into "the way of love." As Eve is being baptized, Xena is bathed in a heavenly light and is infused with the power to kill gods! Soon a number of deities appear and are shocked when Xena kills Hephaestus, Poseidon and Discord. As Xena, Gabrielle and Eve flee, Xena explains that Eve's spiritual cleansing gave her the power to kill gods, a power she will retain as long as Eve is alive. Furthermore, the Archangel Michael has informed Xena that Eve is the messenger who will prepare the way for the God of Love. Xena suggests to Eve that she can begin atoning for her sins by visiting people she wronged and accepting their judgment. The three women go to Joxer's tavern where Virgil is mourning the loss of his father. When Virgil sees Eve, he draws his sword and charges her, but Xena intervenes. Virgil heads for his father's grave where Gabrielle comforts him. Eve thanks Gabrielle for writing her scrolls and preserving Xena for all the ages. It grows dark and starts to rain. Xena sees Ares outside, watching. Xena goes out, telling Gabrielle to watch the back. Gabrielle sees a shadow, and grabs her sais. Gabrielle is visited by the ghosts of Joxer and her evil daughter Hope. Xena argues with Ares in the rain. With their words coming from the invisible Furies, the ghosts convince Gabrielle to kill Eve. When Xena catches a glimpse of Gabrielle plunging her sai into Eve's back, she hurls her chakram hitting Gabrielle in the back of the head and severely wounding her. Instinctively, Xena knows that the Furies are responsible. A horde of gods soon arrive and begin to battle Xena. Xena does her best to protect the gravely wounded Eve. Despite the fact Xena and her were responsible for Hephaestus' death, Aphrodite is moved to protect the unconscious Gabrielle. Believing that Xena has lost her powers and that Eve must be dead, Hades confidently approaches Xena, who kills him. Deimos, the god of terror, is next to bite the dust. Xena pulls Gabrielle to her and tells her no one is dying on her. She says Gabrielle is the most pure thing in her life. And Eve is her great Hope. Aphrodite appears. Xena asks her why she doesn't heal Gabrielle. Xena pleads with Aphrodite to save her dying friend, but she insists she can only heal with Athena's blessing. Xena convinces Aphrodite to take them all to Mount Olympus, where Ares intercepts them. Ares offers to make Xena a god if she lets them kill Eve. Refusing, Xena shoots Ares in the leg and uses him as a shield while she offers the remaining gods a deal. If they heal Eve and Gabrielle, she will leave them in peace. When Athena refuses, the fighting continues and Xena kills Artemis. Eve dies just as Xena is impaling Athena, so the goddess is spared. Her reprieve, however, is short-lived. In a stunning turn of events, Ares is moved to heal Eve and Gabrielle, making it possible for Xena to kill the now confident and unsuspecting Athena. Ares explains that he gave up his immortality to save Eve and Gabrielle in the hopes that Xena, whom he has always loved, will give him another chance. The grateful Xena simply thanks Ares for what he did before departing from Olympus with Gabrielle and Eve. By the sea, Eve plays with a spider. Eve tells Gabrielle she is sorry about Joxer. Gabrielle says he is at peace. Gabrielle and Xena stand beside one another, Xena tells her they have their daughter back. Disclaimer :All the Gods were harmed during the production of this motion picture. Background Information Behind the Scenes *The original script for the scene where Xena throws the Chakram at Gabrielle's head, had Xena just seeing the silhouette of someone stabbing Eve and her tossing the chakram before realizing that it was Gabrielle. But the location didn't have a window in the right place, and they were forced to improvise the scene as they did. *The original title of this episode was "Twilight of the Gods". *They originally planned to have Xena, Gabrielle and Eve face the Gods together in the final showdown, but it was too expensive, so they changed it to Xena fighting alone. It would have more expensive because they would have had to film it outside to have enough room to work as well as requiring a great deal more shots to get all of the angles for the different characters. *Director Rick Jacobson cast himself in the role of Poseidon. *Adrienne Wilkinson explains that the production office had called her up prior to casting regarding any allergies or phobias she has with spiders since she had to do a spider scene at the end of the episode. She said that she doesn't like them, but it's not like she had any phobias. She was surprised, however, at the sheer number of crew members who just couldn't be anywhere near the set when they shot the spider scene. *Karl Urban was originally supposed to appear in this episode as Cupid but was unavailable due to him filming The Lord of the Rings at the time of production. He did, however, make one last appearance on as his more famous character, Julius Caesar, in "When Fates Collide". *This episode was originally 57 minutes long. Scenes cut for time include two scenes involving the Furies, one with the gods discussing Aphrodite protecting Eve and Gabrielle and one of Xena and Ares on the beach in the end of the episode. In this final scene, Xena asks Ares where he will go now, and he responds that he will wander the earth. The scene of Xena attacking Gabrielle was also heavily edited; originally, Gabrielle was repeatedly stabbing Eve and Xena yelled at Gabrielle to stop and only attacked as a last resort. Because of this editing mishap, "Coming Home" had scenes added to it that would address some of these unresolved issues. *'Missing Scene': There was originally a kiss between Xena and Ares in this episode which was cut for time and can be seen in "Coming Home". Also, originally after the Furies left Gabrielle's head, Xena killed them off. Had this happened, "Coming Home" would have been a lot different. *Renee O'Connor almost passed out several times during this episode due to inhaling carbon dioxide fumes while being dragged in the fog that was used to give Olympus a cloudy look. Key Events *This episode marks the last appearance of Renee O'Connor playing Hope on the series. *This episode marks the death of seven Olympian Gods and their last appearance on ; #Poseidon #Discord #Hephaestus #Hades #Deimos #Artemis #Athena *This is only the second time that Artemis has appeared in person, along with the episode "The Apple" (her first appearance). In several episodes of Young Hercules, she was seen in a shimmering light form. *Joel Tobeck makes his first appearance on , though he was a regular on past episodes as both Deimos and Strife. He would make one more appearance on Xena, but as a different character. *This episode marks the third time Ares has lost his immortality. The other two being in "Ten Little Warlords" and "The Quill is Mightier...". *Xena receives the power to kill Gods in this episode. It also marks the first time she loses said power, but she later regained it when Ares revives Eve. Goofs *It was unclear where Xena got the crossbow that she shot Ares with. It may have been in one of the many deleted scenes. *When Xena makes attempts to make a deal with Athena, she says "If you heal Eve and Gabrielle, I'll leave you alone.". You can hear her native Kiwi accent when she says "alone". *When Athena dies and falls to the floor, there is no blood or wound on her stomach. Other *This episode is often considered one of the greatest of . *This episode has the highest "Chakram Count" of all the episodes of and . *'Chakram Count': 7 #To save Eve from two on-coming spears (Split). #Xena throws it to Eve, in order for her to cut herself free from being dragged. #To stop Hephaestus' on-coming Hammer. #To stop Gabrielle from killing Eve. #To trap and delay the Gods (Split). #To try and kill Deimos and to injure Artemis. #To stop Ares from killing Eve. Links and References Main Cast *Lucy Lawless as Xena *Renee O'Connor as Gabrielle Guest Stars *Ted Raimi as Joxer *Adrienne Wilkinson as Eve *Alexandra Tydings as Aphrodite *Paris Jefferson as Athena *Stephen Lovatt as Hades *William Gregory Lee as Virgil *Kevin Smith as Ares *Meighan Desmond as Discord *Joel Tobeck as Deimos *Josephine Davison as Artemis *Julian Garner as Hephaestus *Rick Jacobson as Poseidon References People *Xena *Gabrielle *Eve *Virgil *Eli (Mentioned) *Livia (Mentioned) *Hope (Vision of the Furies) *Joxer (Vision of the Furies) Gods *Athena *Poseidon *Hades *Deimos *Ares *Discord *Artemis *The Furies *Aphrodite Places *Rome *Mount Olympus *Joxer's Tavern Other *Chains of Hephaestus *"The Furies" (Events Mentioned) *"Gabrielle's Hope (Events Mentioned) *"Eve" (Events Mentioned) Season Navigation Category:XWP episodes Category:XWP Season Five Category:The Twilight of the Gods Category:Episodes not set in Greece Category:Rome Category:Episodes